Looking for UK postcodes shapefile (s)

Giasen

Posted 29 October 2008 - 12:49 PM

Giasen

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Yes, I have looked several places already and I either can't login to the UK sites providing the data or the other sites seem to be charging 495 pounds! That may include some demographic data I'm not interested in. Just looking for the boundaries. Any help would be appreciated.

gregsd

Posted 29 October 2008 - 04:16 PM

gregsd

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Yes, I have looked several places already and I either can't login to the UK sites providing the data or the other sites seem to be charging 495 pounds! That may include some demographic data I'm not interested in. Just looking for the boundaries. Any help would be appreciated.

In the UK the Post Office controls and sells postcode data, so you may well end-up having to pay if you want the latest with full coverage. You may be able to find free postcode centroid data on the Internet to download, but it won't be up to date or complete. You could also have a look at 'Free the Postcode' for a public domain list.

Giasen

Posted 04 November 2008 - 01:40 PM

Giasen

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Well I have good news and bad news. The good news is I managed to get my hands on a shapefile for UK postcode 'sectors', which is what I want. The bad news is that the coordinate system is 'undefined'. I've tried OSGB36 and UTM 30 N and WGS84 and a bunch of other ones and none of them line up right yet. Not sure what it is but if anybody has a clue, let me know. Thanks in advance.

Giasen

Posted 04 November 2008 - 01:49 PM

bonzi

Posted 08 January 2009 - 08:38 AM

bonzi

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Well I have good news and bad news. The good news is I managed to get my hands on a shapefile for UK postcode 'sectors', which is what I want. The bad news is that the coordinate system is 'undefined'. I've tried OSGB36 and UTM 30 N and WGS84 and a bunch of other ones and none of them line up right yet. Not sure what it is but if anybody has a clue, let me know. Thanks in advance.

ojhilt

Posted 27 April 2009 - 08:37 AM

ojhilt

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Well I have good news and bad news. The good news is I managed to get my hands on a shapefile for UK postcode 'sectors', which is what I want. The bad news is that the coordinate system is 'undefined'. I've tried OSGB36 and UTM 30 N and WGS84 and a bunch of other ones and none of them line up right yet. Not sure what it is but if anybody has a clue, let me know. Thanks in advance.

where did you find this? i need exactly the same :-)

many thanks !!

Ditto! Please update with details, I hate it when people ask questions then come back to say 'solved it!' then dissappear with no hint as to the answer

gregsd

Posted 28 April 2009 - 02:44 AM

gregsd

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Location:Surrey, England.

Interests:Cycling, mostly off-road (MTB) riding.

United Kingdom

Well I have good news and bad news. The good news is I managed to get my hands on a shapefile for UK postcode 'sectors', which is what I want. The bad news is that the coordinate system is 'undefined'. I've tried OSGB36 and UTM 30 N and WGS84 and a bunch of other ones and none of them line up right yet. Not sure what it is but if anybody has a clue, let me know. Thanks in advance.

where did you find this? i need exactly the same :-)

many thanks !!

Ditto! Please update with details, I hate it when people ask questions then come back to say 'solved it!' then dissappear with no hint as to the answer

Do you want to pay for the data or are you looking for a 'free' version?

Posted 29 May 2009 - 09:44 PM

I think this is an issue that has been bought up before, for quite some time in Canada GIS data was not for free where in the US it is. It's only been in recent times that topographic data has been freed. However in Europe postal codes, & topographic data are very expensive. And unless the cartographer can find good replacement data the freelancer has to dish out a lot of money just to buy what is needed & thus the payment for the data is consequently transferred back to the client as an expensive additional cost on the final invoice. And what this means for the cartographer is that the same client that may not return additional projects because of the high cost of the project.

So in Europe I would demonstrate that you pay high enough taxes already so why pay for it a second time? Time to free your data.

"There is much beauty that we fail to see through our own eyes teeming with life forms that give us that perception of our reality. Leaves on the trees blowing gently in the wind, or scarily, the waves pounding through high surf, or lightly on a warm summer’s day; that opportunity to sit or swim in the water on a white beach. That comfort to shout, “The universal conscious do you hear me? I am alive, guide me dear logos towards the path of rightnesses.” Earned what has been kept, no longer to be absorbed into a life filled with cold damn winds and that stubborn fog clouding my vision with nothing but darkness."

Nick H

Posted 04 June 2009 - 06:11 AM

So in Europe I would demonstrate that you pay high enough taxes already so why pay for it a second time? Time to free your data.

Yes, it is about time our data was freed. There is "free our data" campaign under way already here in the UK, that has the Ordnance Survey as one of its targets. In response the OS have started to make limited access to their small-scale raster mapping available but are still fiercely protective of their vector mapping.

By the way, in the last few days a new mapping service has started up here, see:

Giasen

Posted 14 August 2012 - 05:33 PM

Giasen

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Sorry for the delay in responding. I have had to search many old hard drives for the UK Postcode data I acquired in 2008. When I found it, it had become corrupted. So I was able to re-create the shapefile by importing the kml into ArcMap.

I was wondering if anybody could find out why there are some dissolve problems with it. Somebody wanted me to create a more generalized version but the dissolve function does not appear to be working properly.

gregsd

Posted 15 August 2012 - 06:49 AM

gregsd

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Location:Surrey, England.

Interests:Cycling, mostly off-road (MTB) riding.

United Kingdom

Sorry for the delay in responding. I have had to search many old hard drives for the UK Postcode data I acquired in 2008. When I found it, it had become corrupted. So I was able to re-create the shapefile by importing the kml into ArcMap.

I was wondering if anybody could find out why there are some dissolve problems with it. Somebody wanted me to create a more generalized version but the dissolve function does not appear to be working properly.

I have five areas for the S9 postcode sector:

S9 1S9 2S9 3S9 4S9 5

Tried to dissolve them into just S9, but unsuccessfully at this time.

Things have moved on since your last post! Postcode point data (Code-Point Open)is now freely available to download under the OS Open Data initiative. You could use this point data to create polygons, at least it would be more up to date than your 2008 data!